


The Quarantine Special

by THRILLHO



Series: Bright Lights, Eight Nights of Broten [5]
Category: Dragon Ball
Genre: F/M, Long-Distance Relationship, Pandemics, Video Chat, quarantined
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-15
Updated: 2020-12-15
Packaged: 2021-03-11 05:22:18
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 8,661
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28079862
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/THRILLHO/pseuds/THRILLHO
Summary: What else can one do during quarantine except to get to know someone through video calls and social distancing?
Relationships: Bulla Briefs/Son Goten
Series: Bright Lights, Eight Nights of Broten [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2049801
Comments: 8
Kudos: 7





	The Quarantine Special

Bulla could only watch so much television while stuck in her Central City apartment. If she hadn’t been so naive she could have at least gone home to hole up with her family. She could work out her excess frustrated energy with her dad in the gravity chamber, take advantage of the stay at home orders to train or hang out with Trunks; she hadn’t seen him in ages. But she decided to stay put, thinking the outbreak would stay in the eastern region, never reaching her current city, let alone West City. Spread it did and she had to stay away from Capsule Corporation for the benefit of her human mother and grandparents. Who knows what pathogens she could bring to them? Even if she was immune, it didn’t mean she couldn’t carry it on her clothes and other items.

She knew it was a selfish thought but she was bored. Her ambivert nature allowed her to enjoy the first week of quarantine by herself but now she craved human interaction, even Saiyan interaction! She didn’t have the comfort of tele-calling her mom and brother either. They were too busy working around the clock trying to find an effective treatment or a vaccine. She managed to get through once but they were so snappy and exhausted that she never tried again and her dad didn’t know how to use technology, not that he would have anything to say. She had to admit she missed her family for the first time since she moved away from home. 

Mostly, she felt useless. She lamented her computer engineering background that did not help on the frontlines, like what her mother and brother were doing. Bulla suspected her mother was working so hard because she had used the dragon balls right before the pandemic broke out, using all the wishes for her vanity and leaving them inert for a year.

Unexpectedly, she heard her laptop ringing. Was Pan finally returning her call? She dashed to her desk with excitement but her face fell once she saw the screen.

_ Who the hell is ‘10isthebestnumber’?  _

She debated accepting the call. It could just be some random creep that found her username but being who she was and what family she came from, she was very guarded with her online information and it was likely someone she already knew with a bad taste in usernames. She quickly clicked accept before she could backtrack on her decision.

Immediately, the face of an exhausted looking man filled her screen.

“Goten!” she said. That was a surprise. She considered him a friend but not one that she could just shoot the shit with at any random time. In fact, she often felt weird about sending innocuous messages that her mother or Trunks asked her to relay to him.

He looked just as surprised to see her as she did him. “Shoot, sorry, Bulla,” he said. “I’m just so tired I think I hit your name instead of your mom’s. That's what I get for typing B-U-L and clicking the first option, L does come before M,” he rambled. “I’ll let you go—”

“No!” she cut him off before he could log out.  _ Wow, I must be desperate.  _ “I’m glad you called,” she found herself saying. “I’ve been going a bit crazy being alone in my own head and all. It’s nice to talk to another person.” She had never seen his place before, she didn’t even know where he lived. The nosy part of her paid more attention to the background than the person she was talking to. The place had clean white walls and shelves lined with books. Far behind him was his impeccable kitchen with modern stainless steel appliances. It looked hardly lived in. 

Bulla looked behind her for a second to look at the mess strewn about her penthouse loft, blankets and pillows thrown everywhere, and her clothes and some reading material strewn about. Goten was too polite to say anything to her if he noticed.

“Really?” To his credit, Goten didn’t immediately switch her off but he didn’t look particularly engaged either. “I would have thought living at Capsule Corp—”

“I’m not in West City,” she interrupted. “I moved to Central City years ago, remember?”

“Sorry, that’s right,” he nodded. He couldn’t hide his expression from Bulla though and she saw the conflict in his face. “Listen, can I call you back? I just really need to get some data over to your mom.”

The puff of excitement in her chest disappeared as she realized the half-Saiyan, half-human contact was fleeting. “Sure,” she said, not hiding her disappointment. He wasn’t going to call her back. People often said that and didn’t mean it and Goten had no reason to call her in the first place. She exited the conversation before he could to assuage whatever guilt he might feel at dismissing her.

Bulla looked over to the clock and groaned. It was only late afternoon and there were still many hours between then and sleep. How pathetic was it that what she looked forward to most was bedtime? She turned on her television again and streamed her favorite cooking competition show for the third time. Maybe she should try her hand at cooking something, the idea came to her. She had loads of time on her hands and she did love to eat. Grocery stores were one of the few places that she could go to, she just hoped panic buyers hadn’t raided the shelves. With newfound optimism, she looked up some recipes and made a list.

* * *

The smoke was choking her as she ran to the window to get some fresh air. She tried to cook along with a video but it went too fast for her and she needed to pause and rewind constantly which made her distracted. The vegetables she tried to sauté were burned to ashes and her apartment filled with smoke and she attempted to mitigate that by leaving the smoking pan outside on her rooftop terrace.

Now, something was ringing and she didn’t know if it was the fire alarm, her phone, or something else entirely. She wanted to scream.

Instinct told her to answer the call while common sense would have told her it could wait but instinct won out and she answered the video call on her tablet.

“Goten!” Again, she was surprised to see the man’s weary face. “You actually called back?” She had not expected it considering his appearance earlier. His hair was wilder than usual but it was flattened and clung to his forehead with sweat. Most telling were his eyes, they were red and puffy with dark circles. If she had to venture a guess, he had been hitting the caffeine pretty hard.

“I said I would, didn’t I?” He gave her a small smile though his eyes still looked tired. “So what did you want to talk about?”

“Um…” Bulla had no plan should Goten call back. “Nothing in particular, just wanted to catch up!” she settled on saying. Despite her mini-disaster moments before, she tried to look as cheerful and smiley as possible.

Goten just stared at her for a brief moment, so still was he that Bulla considered a faulty connection. He let out a low sigh, “Well, I, uh…” Goten struggled for a bit. “Shit, honestly, it’s been really tough. Even  _ I’m  _ dead on my feet so just imagine what it’s doing to my co-workers.”

Bulla winced. She had been lamenting her boredom and was about to say as much to the man who was in the middle of fighting the pandemic on the frontlines. She wanted to hit herself for being stupid and taking up his time.

She was about to sign off and apologize for taking up his time when Goten spoke up again. “Bulla, where’s that smoke coming from?” Bulla looked behind her to see that in her haste, she left her still hot smoking pan on a cloth cushion that somehow started burning. 

“Ah!” she screamed and flailed her arms while running to put it out. For some reason, she thought using another cushion to fan it would help but it only started a fire that caught onto the cushion she was using. She promptly dropped it which did nothing to help the situation. 

“Bulla!” she heard a voice yell at her. “Just get some water or a fire extinguisher if you have one!”

_ What? Fire extinguisher?  _ She had a hard time concentrating at the moment. Using her ki would probably only make a bigger fire but that’s what she had thought of trying next. It took her a second to realize Goten was watching and advising her.  _ Oh, how humiliating!  _ But his advice got through to her and she remembered that she did indeed have a fire extinguisher and ran to get it from the wall in her kitchen. It was funny, she never thought she would need to use it. She squeezed the handle but nothing happened, no foam or anything spurted out.

“Pull the pin!” she heard Goten call out.  _ Oh, right.  _ She followed his instructions and mercifully the flame retardant came out and did its work. 

“How am I ever going to clean this up?” she groaned, forgetting Goten was still watching her until she heard his suppressed sniggers that turned into full blown laughter.

“Glad, you thought it was funny,” she snapped back but felt her anger dissipate when she saw how much younger he looked when he laughed, the difficulty of the past weeks melting from his face.

“Sorry,” he managed to get out. “You’re normally just Ms. Cool all the time. It was just so absurd to see you running around like a maniac.”

“I can be your fool if you need it.” Bulla opted to be magnanimous. “Hard day at work?”

“Definitely,” Goten said, visibly more relaxed. “There are too many sick people and not enough nurses and doctors, we’re all pulling these crazy shifts. It would kind of be nice to forget about it all but—”

“You don’t have to talk about that stuff if you’re with me,” Bulla cut him off. “Let’s just mellow out, talk about something not work related.”

Goten started shaking with laughter again, “You can start by telling me how that fire started.”

* * *

Growing up, his mom had never hidden her disappointment that Gohan never became a doctor and Goten never regretted making her dream come true even when the path was difficult. It was in his genes to be a hero, after all. But these days he felt less and less like he was capable of doing anything. Too many patients, nothing they could do, just treat each symptom as it presented itself and hope for the best. It was like trying to plug a mesh sieve at each hole and at the end of a long day he came home to nothing.

There was no one waiting for him at home nor could he go out and see his friends and family. It was all work, sleep, eat, repeat and it was exhausting. With his Saiyan stamina, he felt some responsibility to take on more shifts than others so his other co-workers could have more rest. Some of them also had families to take care of and Goten didn’t; it was a no brainer for him to pick up the slack but he was still ordered to go home once in a while.

Before it hardly registered, it didn’t bother him but now, with little free time and little to do with it combined with the isolation from human interaction, he found himself drained. Life seemed more like shades of black and white than color now.

And he was going crazy it seemed. Goten thought he felt Bulla’s energy as he pulled into his driveway but then he also smelled her lingering scent. Bulla didn’t even know where he lived, how could she have been around? Wishful thinking, he supposed. The half-Saiyan girl was like a shot of serotonin and dopamine in his system especially after the long days of work. He actually hadn’t been keen on calling her back that day but guilt made him and he certainly did not regret it.

_ What’s this?  _ Goten thought as he saw something on his doorstep. He didn’t order anything. Upon closer inspection, it was some type of insulated bag with a small hand sanitizer and an individually wrapped disinfecting wipe on top. Peering even closer, he saw the note:

_ Wipe down the bag and sanitize your hands before taking it inside. -B _

“Huh,” he said. It wasn’t his imagination after all. Bulla had been nearby when he pulled up. He would have wondered what was inside the bag if not for his impressive olfactory senses.  _ Food.  _ It had not registered that he was absolutely starving until he smelled the beef, tomato, and subtle hints of carrot, celery, and onion. His mouth watered thinking about it and he wasted no time following Bulla’s instructions and disinfecting everything before bringing it inside. 

However, his anticipation of a hot meal he didn’t make was cut short when he heard his phone ringing.  _ Now what?  _ He reluctantly put down the food bag and answered his phone though he considered ignoring it. 

“Go for ten,” he answered and immediately cringed.  _ What an awful line.  _ What on earth compelled him to say that? He didn’t even look to see who it was calling. If it was Pan, she would never let him forget it. 

He heard a feminine giggle on the other end.  _ Definitely not Pan.  _ Then she said, “Is that how you answer your phone? Can anyone take you seriously?”

“Hey, Bulla.” He brightened up knowing it was her. “How did you get my number and address? Should I be concerned?” He shared neither with her to his knowledge.

“Ah ah,” Bulla said. “Turn on your computer.” He had no time to reply as the line went dead. If it were anyone else, Goten would have been annoyed at playing games like this but it was  _ Bulla.  _ She had a supernatural talent to make even the most impatient of people and deities put up with what they would consider exasperating.

As much as he wanted to eat whatever Bulla brought him, he ended up following her orders anyway, figuring he knew what she was up to.

He fired up his laptop and the video calling app at his kitchen table and pulled out the heavy five-liter container from the bag that was keeping it warm. It was not long before he got a call from BeautiBulBriefs.  _ No wonder I got them mixed up. The egos on them... _

Upon accepting, Goten was rewarded with a full screen of the Saiyan princess’ face. 

He took her in, seeing the now familiar background of her penthouse and her in a nice black dress. She raised a glass of red wine and she said, “Shall we?” 

“We shall,” Goten said and took the top off the container. It was still steaming and hot, giving him the full whiff of minced beef cooked in wine and herbs and coated in tomato sauce.

“It was pasta week,” Bulla said. “I made the pappardelle from scratch.” Her eyes lit up as she leaned forward in her seat as she watched him take his first bite.

Goten didn’t bother to hide his groan. It tasted as good as it smelled. The pasta was more than just a delivery method for the meaty sauce. Rather than the slightly stale and bland taste of the boxed stuff, Bulla’s homemade pasta was perfectly chewy and the flavors of each component blended together impeccably.

“Damn, Bulla, you’ve come a long way since I first saw you having to put out that fire,” he said as he relaxed in his chair and tried to restrain himself from gobbling down the rest of it. After all, he was being watched. “This is amazing.” He couldn’t help himself and proceeded to dig in, carefully though, he did want to savor every bite.

Her face broke into a wide grin without saying anything else and ate her identical meal.

Goten made sure to swallow before he asked her, “So how did you figure out where I live? More importantly, have you been stalking me? How did you know when I would be home? That was timed rather well.”

“I do know my way around computers,” she said with a devious smirk. “You should tell the hospital’s IT department to stay on top of it.”

“I’m going to have to have a word with your parents young lady.” He shook the end of his fork at her though her smile fell a bit, she quickly recovered. He dismissed it figuring she was like him and the thought of parental interference—even teasing—kept her on her guard. He could still feel the dull ache in his head from his mom’s frying pan. Why was young Goten stupid enough to break curfew?

He switched direction, “This was really sweet of you, thank you.” He had not thanked her for the meal and needed to remedy that. It made him a little sad how he hadn’t had a home cooked meal in a while. One, because he had no time, and two because he did miss his mom despite her imposing presence. She was human and older and he wouldn’t risk seeing her.

“You’re welcome,” she said. “Anything I can do for our heroes.” She brought up her wine glass to toast to him but he could only manage a wry smile as he thought about the sacrifices his career choice forced on him at this time.

“What’s wrong?” Bulla looked more interested in him than her plate which was saying a lot for a Saiyan, full or otherwise. 

“Nothing,” he said, twirling more pappardelle on his fork and stuffing it into his mouth.  _ Oh god, this is incredible.  _ “Make sure Lord Beerus doesn’t learn that you’re cooking or he might make you never stop.”

“It’s not nothing,” Bulla said, ignoring his attempt to distract her. “C’mon, you can tell me. Sometimes it feels amazing to let things out.”

Goten nodded, knowing she was right but still, he hesitated. He was about to speak, tell her, he didn’t want to burden her with  _ his  _ problems but she held up a finger and shushed him.

“If your day was long, I’ll be here to ask how your day was. I’ve got plenty of time to listen.”

* * *

Bulla couldn’t stop herself from humming these days. Goten’s schedule was erratic while she was still stuck at home with few work projects to keep her occupied but she still cherished the time he would take to video chat with her whenever he found the time.

She openly sighed—it wasn’t a big deal, she lived alone—it was no use, she had a crush. She sat there waiting with her video chat app open waiting to see if he was online. What the hell was quarantine doing to her? Was she so starved for male attention that she latched onto the nearest available unrelated man?

And yet…

She couldn’t bring herself to care.

She stared at the small circle that encompassed his picture and sighed again. She loved his goofy smile and wanted to see it live again, better yet, in person but there were still many weeks if not months of lockdown left.

Her heart did a backflip as the little red circle by his icon turned green and her screen filled with the incoming call alert. She could feel her energy crackling around her bouncing out of control. There was no time to calm down as she had only a few seconds to answer his call. All she could do was pretend she wasn’t excited to talk to him. 

“Hey, stranger!” Bulla waved from where she sat.  _ So much for not pretending to be excited.  _ She took him in, there were still the dark circles under his tired eyes, hair disheveled as ever, but he still had that optimistic smile on his face. The one that helped her believe the world would come out of this too.

“And how’s my favorite little super Saiyan?” He chuckled at his own cleverness. That was enough to stifle her enthusiasm for their conversation. Despite getting to know one another better the past few weeks, Goten still saw her as a kid despite her age. 

“Don’t let Trunks hear you say that,” Bulla muttered under her breath.

“He’s hardly little,” Goten said. 

“How am I little?” Bulla leaned forward to question him. “I’m twenty-six—”

“Yeah but you’ll always be a kid to me,” he interrupted her, “Just like Pan!”

Great. Just who she wanted to be compared to! His niece who happened to be one year older than herself. 

“How is she, by the way?” Bulla said. The conversation was on Pan, they might as well continue. “Have you been able to talk to her?”

“Not as often as you, I would suppose.” Goten shrugged. ”Why? Did something happen?”

“Not really.” Bulla waffled on telling him the truth or not. There were other things she would rather talk about.

“Take it from a guy who’s had his up and downs with his best friend, whatever it is isn’t worth holding onto.”

_ If only Pan saw it that way…. _ Bulla thought. She wanted to put those thoughts aside and instead talk more about the man himself. He was her favorite subject, after all.

She leaned forward towards her camera, her arms folded on her desk in front of her. “And what about you mister?”

“That’s doctor, miss,” he said, his expression playful. Bulla couldn’t help but transform her scowl into a smile. He just had that way about him that made it hard to be in a bad mood around him.

“My mistake, Doctor Son,” Bulla faux apologized. “Is there a Mrs. Son on the horizon perhaps?” Though she tried to appear confident and more curious, her heart was beating like crazy in anticipation of what she might hear. That fiery pit of jealousy in her stomach was threatening to burst out if his answer was anything but ‘no.’

“Haha, maybe you if you cook for me again.”  _ Wait, is he... _ **_flirting_ ** _?...Or hinting at wanting more food? Hmph. _

The fire in her belly was doused in a second as she heard him say, ‘you.’ She found herself not in control of her facial muscles—or anything else—and the corners of her mouth twitched upward involuntarily. 

“That can be arranged,” she said. Part of her knew Goten was just playing with her but his optimism was contagious. She was going to let herself believe there was  _ something  _ going on between them and that  _ something  _ was mutual, if only for her own indulgence.

“Which one, the food or the marriage? Because I’m sure my mom would be thrilled for the latter. I’ve kept her waiting long enough.” Goten threw back his head and laughed at his own cleverness. “And to a rich girl no less!”

“Ha, if we get married I’m getting a prenup and you’re doing most of the cooking,” Bulla declared and waited for his reaction.

“Fair enough. It wouldn’t be special if you cooked for me all the time.”

* * *

Today was one of the worst days. Three months. It was three months his patient had been in the intensive care unit cycling from better to worse. The guy had been healthy, relatively young—not much older than himself—and in a coma. All that on top of the other illnesses and injuries that brought people to the hospital when it wasn’t a global pandemic.

Goten did all he could, even radical and desperate ideas that the family begged him to try. Losing a patient never got easier.

The drive home was a blur. He was shocked to find himself pulling into his driveway in one piece as he realized his body was on autopilot while his mind was elsewhere.

Before he even got out of his car, he was met with the tantalizing smell of Bulla’s care package. It was a rare treat, he knew—she had only done this three other times in the months they had been talking—but he had no appetite. Still, he brought it inside and noticed a new addition, two bottles of red wine.  _ Does she read minds?  _ Goten wondered. The food he had no use for at the moment, but the alcohol… _ Bless her. _

He brought everything in, setting the food aside knowing he would be hungry later, and uncorked the wine, not bothering with a glass. He wasn’t going to turn on his computer tonight. He didn’t want her to see him like this and he didn’t know if he could muster up any positive energy for her.

As he was enjoying gulping down his red wine to forget about the day he had, there was still something else bothering him. His mother had instilled manners in him and he was letting her down. Goten had not thanked Bulla for going to the trouble of cooking him something and bringing it to him. It was a kind act and the least she deserved was a thank you.

He turned on his computer and as always he was the one to call her, never the other way around except for the first time she brought him food. 

After a few seconds, he was connected to the one and only daughter of Vegeta and Bulma. Her pretty face filled his screen despite the dim light in her apartment and it did not escape his notice that Bulla tended to look more put together as the days went on. Today she went all out with red on her lips and another little black dress. She was far more dressed up than her usual baggy t-shirts and leggings.

His eyes were drawn to the glass of red wine next to her. “Hey, kiddo, what’s the occasion?” 

She frowned at that. “Nothing special.” She picked up her wine glass and swirled the liquid a bit before downing the rest of it. Her cheeks were a little red and her eyes were glazed over with heavy lids. It looked like she had been hitting the bottle too. He wondered if she’d had a hard day too.

“Slow down there, kiddo. Trust me, I’m a doctor.” He laughed uncomfortably. His hackles rose at Bulla’s body language. Her mouth was in a firm line, there were no shadows of a smile on her face as there typically was, no light in her eyes. If he learned anything from video chatting with her, it was that she tried to appear all serious business but he never missed the twitch of her lips or the crinkled lines around her eyes. She was far too solemn right now and it unnerved him. 

“I’m not a child,” she said, standing up, hands on her hips. “I’ve been trying to tell you I’m twenty-six. I can even rent a car on my own.” It was now that Goten saw her tight black dress had a massive zipper running down the front. He hadn’t been paying much attention to it before but now his eye was drawn to it because Bulla held the pull tab in between her thumb and forefinger. 

“What are you doing?” His breathing turned shallow and his mouth dried but not from the alcohol. He sat frozen in place, his mind blank with disbelief.  _ No, no, no. _

Her frown turned into a pout and she dropped the zipper. Goten relaxed in his seat and debated whether or not to just say thank you and drop the call. Even if she wasn’t trying to get all vampy with him, it bothered him greatly that he considered it a possibility. He was sick for thinking like that.

Bulla leaned forward giving the camera a view down her dress, basically putting her breasts in his face if they would have been in the same room together. Recoiling, he pushed his seat away from his desk with a loud abruptness that started Bulla.

“What’s wrong?” She sat back in her seat, pouring herself more wine, unaware of his inner turmoil. He resolved to thank her and end the conversation as fast as possible. He didn’t like where his mind was taking him as he looked at Bulla. Noticing every dip and curve to her face and body. Worse, he didn’t like how it was making him  _ feel _ .

“Nothing’s wrong, I just had a long day—”

“And didn’t you say I made them better,” Bulla said and leaned forward, pushing her breasts up for his viewing. He held in a groan as he felt his dick twitch.

Goten’s cursor hovered over the ‘end call’ button but he hesitated to click it. “Yes, and thank you for that but I need to go—” 

“Wait, I need to tell you something,” she whispered, leaning into the camera again. It made him hesitate as his fingers hovered over the trackpad. She stood up again and said, “Did I say tell?” In one swift movement, she gulped down her freshly poured wine with one hand and pulled down her zipper with the other. “I meant to say I needed to show you something.” 

Goten’s objections died in his throat. He wanted to but he couldn’t look away as Bulla stood there with her breasts shamelessly bare in front of him. He couldn’t see past her hip bone—to his annoyance—but he didn’t need an imagination to know that she hadn’t been wearing anything under her dress despite her family name. It only got worse as she drew her hand to graze across her breast for a moment before dragging it across her stomach and then disappearing under her desk to the place he could not see. It was all too much for Goten, seeing her flushed face and heavy lidded eyes, biting her lip. He was dying to know what she was doing under the table before he snapped out of the siren’s trance.

“WHAT THE FUCK, BULLA?!”

This was wrong. It was disgusting. She was thirteen years younger than him for god’s sake! She was Trunks’  _ baby  _ sister. Vegeta and Bulma’s daughter. His niece’s friend. He was overwhelmed with guilt that for the few seconds he had forgotten that.

“What were you hoping to accomplish with this?” He tried to keep his voice as cold and steady as possible. He stared straight ahead but looked anywhere but her. He didn’t want to see her face or gauge how she was feeling. “Put your clothes on, you’re embarrassing yourself.” 

“But—”

“You’ve ruined everything.”

He didn’t give her the chance to reply and shut his laptop trusting that would disconnect the call. 

“Fuck!” There was no one around to hear his scream and he was glad of it. Those images of Bulla’s breasts were imprinted in his mind and when he attempted to shut his eyes to forget.  _ God, they’re perfect.  _ He wanted to punch himself for admitting to himself, for recognizing her as a woman instead of someone’s sister, child, friend.

Worst of all, he didn’t need to look to his crotch to know he was as hard as a rock.

* * *

Hot tears ran down her red face but hating the action didn’t make it stop. How could she have been so stupid? That was a question she had asked herself when she woke up the next day, hungover with a wet pillow full of tears and transferred eyeliner.

She had no courage herself so she had relied on liquid courage. The plan was to frame the dinner as a date or at least try to, but too much wine had made her go from zero to one hundred and she was paying the price for it. Never in her life had she been yelled at like that or looked at with such disdain. It had gone so much better in her head, they’d pretend like they were dining in the same room together, laughing and drinking wine as they did countless times before. Then she’d say something like, “We should do this in person when all this is over,” and then he would say, “I’d like that.”

Instead, she had gotten blackout drunk and went for the kill. One thing she remembered so well from that night was the way he saw right through her. After his initial shock, he looked so disgusted. She became a fool for him. 

Goten was right; she did mess everything up.

Bulla tried Pan but her call went to voicemail again and Bulla hung up instead of leaving a message; she never did. She wasn’t sure if she was missing Pan or that her friend ignored her calls. How much would she have to humble herself to get Pan to talk to her again?

She tried a new approach, a text message,  _ Pan, I need you,  _ and fell asleep waiting hours for the reply that never came.

The next thing that she knew was the ascending and descending pitches of her video app telling her of an incoming call. Her heart began to pound wondering who it was. She had written off the possibility of Goten but he was the only one who seemed to call her as of late…

With some disappointment, relief, and elation, it turned out to be Pan.

“Only reaching out when you need me?” Pan’s stern face stared back at her. “A tale as old as time. Which guy dumped you now?”

Bulla wasn’t in the mood to defend herself or face up to the annoyed Pan, especially after what she was about to say. “Goten,” she said.

“WHAT?! MY UNCLE?!” Bulla could hear Pan nearly falling out of her chair. “No, no, no! I do not approve! What the fuck is wrong with you? What the fuck is wrong with _ him? _ ”

“As for me, I can’t say,” Bulla said and kept her gaze averted from the screen. “But nothing happened on his end. You’ll be happy to know he flat out rejected me.”

“ _ That dick! _ ”

Bulla dared look up to see her friend scowling. “Where does he get off rejecting  _ you?  _ His last girlfriend didn’t even know how to eat a hamburger! Trust me, he’s as stupid as her if he thinks he thinks he can do better. You don’t need that moron.”

A bubble of laughter formed in the pit of Bulla’s stomach and erupted in her throat when she saw Pan getting angry on her behalf when she was appalled a few seconds ago.

“I’ve missed you,” Bulla said. “You cheer me up like no other.” It had only happened two days ago but it felt like she hadn’t laughed in ages. “Thank you.”

“It’s a little too late,” Pan said. Bulla decided to face the intimidating presence that was Pan. Her arms were crossed and she somehow glared  _ down  _ at Bulla even though she was just a face on a screen and not physically there. Pan could only keep it up for a few seconds before she relaxed her arms and sighed. “Don’t get me wrong, I’m still mad at you but I am dying to know what happened between you and my uncle.”

As Bulla told her story of how it started with an accidental call and ended with Bulla literally baring it all. She saw Pan’s face go from curious to curled lips to open mouthed to furrowed brows to cringes.

“It’s for the best,” Pan said when Bulla finished her story. “If you two got married I would have to call you Auntie Bulla and I don’t think you or I would psychologically recover from that.”

“Yeah, I guess,” Bulla said. While she appreciated the joke, it didn’t do much to heal her heartache. She rested her head on her propped up elbow and spoke candidly to Pan. “I just really liked him, you? I think I still do. I don’t think I’ve ever gotten to know a guy that way before.” If she couldn’t talk to Pan about this, who could she talk to? “I’m sorry. This is probably awkward for you, isn’t it? He is your uncle.” Bulla winced at her words. She was guilty of what Pan accused her of, being up her own ass all the time.

“It’s okay,” Pan said. “I won’t pretend that I know what to do to win him over—because I don’t—but I think I understand where you’re coming from. Trunks is a fox.” The older girl bit her lip and looked far off, a dreamy expression on her face. “If I was ten years older and he was ten years younger,” she purred.

Bulla couldn’t help but say, “Sick, Pan,” in between her laughter.

“What I’m trying to say is—even though I’ve only had a few minutes to process the whole thing—that if he really means that much to you, I guess you have my blessing,” Pan said, mumbling the last part.

“Wait? Really?” That was unexpected, to say the least, Pan had been far from enthusiastic seconds ago. All Bulla wanted was to confess her sins, talk about it in the open because it sounded less crazy in her head and she needed a reality check but Pan shrugged it off.

“I’ve never seen you so miserable over a guy and you’re being much more mature about this. Normally, it’s you ditching me when you get ga ga eyed over some dude and then you get bored and pretend he never existed,” Pan said. “That and he’s almost forty and most definitely needs to settle down and he could do a lot—and I mean  _ a lot _ —worse. From what you said, he probably likes you too but it’s harder for him to admit it since he’s the older one. This whole thing is gross by the way.”

“Um, yeah. I’m sorry—about the topic and how I’ve been an ass,” Bulla said, feeling her cheeks heat up. “I swear on Trunks’ life that I won’t take our friendship for granted. You’re the best.”

“Why on Trunks’ life and not yours?” Pan looked at her with narrowed eyes.

“From our conversation earlier I would think his life meant more to you than mine.”

“True,” Pan said, smiling conspiratorially with Bulla. “Now, as I said before, I don’t know how to win him over romantically. To me, he is not a sexual being but I’ve seen him in tiffs before. I think you need to give him his space before you reach out again. He’s usually the one doing all the conciliatory gestures and nice things, I think it would go a long way if you did some nice things for him…” Pan went on but this was stuff already known to Bulla that she had figured out during their many conversations in the past months. She let her friend go on, it was good to have her back.

“Pan, you are too good to me,” Bulla said. “How are you though? And forget Goten, you’re the first person I want to see when we come out of this. What do you want to do?”

Pan gasped in mock shock. “You really are trying to change.”

* * *

Trunks and Bulma had done it, not only a safe and effective vaccine but a proven treatment for a novel new disease that didn’t exist a year ago and a dragon’s wish to supply the world. Goten would lead the riot if they didn’t win the World Invention Award.

“Congratulations, man,” Trunks said from the video screen. He still had dark circles under his eyes and his normally slick straight hair was sloppy but the eyes of Goten’s best friend looked at peace.

“Shouldn’t I be saying that to you?” Goten said. “You and Bulma saved the world and you didn’t have to fight a big, bad guy.”

“You did too, you know. We couldn’t have come up with anything if you didn’t collect and share all that data from your patients. And how many lives did you save just doing your regular job through this shit show?” Goten gave a little smile and shrug. He was never one to toot his own horn. “Oh and don’t forget Bulla,” Trunks added.

Goten gulped.  _ Did he hear? Did he know? He hasn’t tried to choke me through the computer screen so probably not. _

“Don’t look so shocked. Her computational immunology models fast tracked this whole thing. It cannot be understated, the mathematical models she came up with let us predict which cells recognized the pathogens for the best immune response.”

Goten let out a breath in relief. Trunks didn’t know anything about his and Bulla’s  _ relationship _ —if it could be called that—but Goten had not known about Bulla’s contribution either.

“Really? She never told me she was involved,” Goten said before realizing his mistake.

“Since when do you two talk?” Trunks said, jumping on that new bit of information. “I hope you maintained two meters of social distance.”

Goten fixed his face into a casual expression, hoping his face wasn’t giving anything away. “We never met in person,” he shook his head. “Can you believe I called Bulla instead of Bulma? It wasn’t enough Bulla and your mom look almost identical but they have to have almost the same name too.”

“Yup,” Trunks nodded. “Been there, I think that’s why Bulla moved, I called her ‘mom’ one too many times. Just imagine if my dad got his way and named me Vegeta V.”

“Haha, I guess I have no room to talk either. My dad, brother, and I all have names that start with Go.”

“You and Bulla would make quite a match. Every son starting with Go and every daughter starting with Bul. It’s tradition.”

Goten took a sharp inhale of air at Trunks’ statement, and did so too fast that he choked on his own spit and had an epic coughing fit. He would not think of Bulla under those circumstances  _ ever _ . At least, he tried not to. The images were always in his head, popping up at the most inconvenient times.  _ God, I’m like a teenager again with all these inconvenient erections. _

“You, okay?” Trunks’ words brought Goten out of his thoughts.

“Yeah...I just…” Goten could not come up with any words, not ones he wanted to share with Trunks anyway.

“I get it,” Trunks said, saving Goten from himself. “I feel the same way. You’ve been wired for a year now it’s all just crashing down on you.”

“Yeah, something like that,” Goten said. It was a good enough excuse. In any case, he and Bulla—whatever it was—were over. He did not intend to see or talk to her again unless it was at some sort of family function. God, it was as awkward as dating a cousin, not that he had any. 

“Why don’t we book a vacation soon? I know you feel like everything will collapse if you’re not at the hospital but I think everyone there will agree you need one. We can even bring Marron and Bulla—”

“No!” 

Trunks lifted his eyebrow at Goten’s outburst. If he was willing to dismiss Goten’s odd behavior before, it caught his attention now.

Trunks smirked which was the opposite of what Goten had expected. “Did something happen between you and Marron?”

_ Marron?!  _ If Goten was as quick on his feet with lying as he was with treating his patients, he might have seen that as his salvation. Instead, his face crumpled in confusion, leaving him wide open for Trunks to read. 

“Now it becomes apparent,” Trunks said after his smile slipped. He leaned back in his chair and crossed his arms, all business. “What happened between you and my sister?”

“Nothing!”

“I wouldn’t say it’s nothing. Your face is completely red right now.”

_ Was it?  _ Goten didn’t have a mirror handy and touching his face didn’t reveal anything either.  _ Why would it?!  _ Goten decided to tell what was essential. It might be nice to get it off his back and maybe he could find a path to apologize to Bulla. He hadn’t needed to yell at her like that.

“Okay, fine,” Goten said. “After I accidentally called her, I guess she’d been bored and asked me to call back—”

“And you being the big softy with a chewy center you are, you called her back right away, didn’t you?” Trunks nodded.  _ Am I that predictable? _

“Well, yeah, and it became a regular thing a few times a week. Learning about her new hobbies was a nice distraction from... _ you know. _ ” Goten gestured around.

“Yeah so? That doesn’t sound like something to be so upset about—but of course, you’re not done.” 

Goten shook his head and mentally prepared himself for his next words. “She came onto me a few weeks ago.” There. It came out easier than he thought it would. Trunks’ eyebrows were up to his hairline and in a first for him, he had nothing to say. “Don’t worry, I turned her down!” Goten was quick to add.  _ Not kindly, _ he remembered. “I’ve just felt bad about it ever since.”

“Wow. That’s,” Trunks paused a moment getting his bearings, “Wow.” Then, he turned on Goten, his eyes narrowed and critical like his father’s. “And just what is wrong with my sister?”

“Dude! She’s _ your  _ sister!” Whatever Goten had expected, it wasn’t that.

“Oh, right,” Trunks backed off. “She would still be a step up. Your last girlfriend didn’t know how to eat an ice cream cone.”

“Would you guys stop bringing that up? Besides she was very sweet.” Goten recalled his last relationship. Sweetness was nice but too much was never a good thing, particularly for males with Saiyan backgrounds.

“Do you like my sister? Like more than a friend?” Trunks’ probing stare made him fidget in his seat. Of course, Goten knew the answer to his question. It had been going through his mind for weeks, or to be specific two weeks, three days, eleven hours, and forty minutes and he hated himself for it.

“I don’t know...kind of?” Goten said but was quick to backtrack, “But I would never cross that line, I swear!” He shut his eyes, wince, and threw his arms up to shield himself from a punch he had no reason to anticipate.

“Um, what line?” Trunks' voice was calm and confused. He hadn’t exploded like Goten thought he might have. He braved opening one eye to see his longtime friend sitting still in his seat, his arms no longer crossed with tight shoulders.  _ Was this a trick?  _ Lulling him into a false sense of calm, inviting him over for beers, and then wailing on him when he least expected it seemed like something that Trunks would do.

“You know, crossing boundaries in our friendship?”

Trunks scoffed and rolled his eyes. “What are you, fourteen? The person whose boundaries you should be respectful of is Bulla, not me.”

“But Pan—”

“B-b-but,” Trunks mocked him. “Did you babysit Bulla? Feed her in a high chair? Take her to school? Attend her tea parties? Help her move? No, that was me and I don’t remember you being there at all.” True, when Goten tried to recall memories of Bulla being a little girl, he had drawn a blank. Hell, when he tried to recall  _ any  _ memories of Bulla, there was nothing...except for recently and  _ that  _ night. He hadn’t been there for her the way he had been there for Pan.

“Besides, Bulla’s on the wrong side of twenty,” Trunks laughed. “She isn’t even appealing to those sleazy dudes who only date twenty-somethings anymore! Stop coming up with excuses if you do like her. Come get your shot, wait a few weeks, get the second dose, and then go see my sister in person and figure out what it’s all about.”

Goten wasn’t about to let his guard down, however. What guy approved—at least tacitly—of his sister dating a significantly older man? “Um, why aren’t you having more of a reaction?

“She never does the chasing, she must really like you.” Goten felt his mouth twitch at the revelation. Trunks sighed. “The other guys never pass my tests.” He shook his head. “I have the highest standards for my sister, you know.”

Goten was saved from replying to that as he received an incoming call from the subject herself. “Can you hold on a second? Bulla’s calling me.” For the first time in weeks, he could breathe. He felt a little bit less guilty of his feelings and if her call was any indication, she didn’t hate him.

“Take all the time you need, bro. But if you can catch her just keep her. She’s a pain in the ass anyway.” Trunks saluted him and ended the call without saying good-bye.

This was it then. He took one deep breath and exhaled slowly before answering her video call. 

“Goten, I’m so sorry,” she said as soon as they were connected. “I should have come up with a better way to—”

Goten put a hand up and said, “No, Bulla, I’m the one who owes you an apology. What I said was absolutely uncalled for—”

“I needed to hear it. Despite what movies say, that’s not the right way to tell a guy you like him.”

“But it is good at getting the point across,” Goten said and hoped his smile showed her there were no hard feelings.

“Um, yeah.” Bulla blushed prettily. “Listen, I understand if you don’t want to talk to me anymore—”

“What? No!” Goten said. “Not at all. I still want to talk to you like before but let’s slow things down first. If you’re amenable?”

“What is that supposed to mean?” Bulla looked so much like her brother then with her arms crossed and eyes narrowed.

Yeah, what did he mean? “I’d like to keep you as a friend.” He settled on. He hadn’t had much time to prepare on how to phrase things. He’d barely even accepted the idea a few seconds ago.

“Oh,” she said. She still had her arms crossed over her chest but she lost some of the fire behind her eyes.

“I’m probably not where you want me to be but I want to get there.” He shrugged awkwardly. He knew it wasn’t the most romantic gesture. “If I had time to prepare, I’d send you flowers and recite some sweet words I rehearsed but you caught me a little off guard.”

That twitch of her lips returned, when she was trying not to smile but couldn’t help it. “What changed?”

“I think—and I know it sounds unbelievable—but I think I had some sense knocked into me by Trunks of all people.”

Bulla rolled her eyes, “He’s always testing the guys I date. Did you know he put on a ski mask and pretended to mug my last boyfriend and me on a date?”

Goten snickered at that, “How did that one go?” He could just imagine Trunks dropping out of the sky in front of an unsuspecting couple.

“My  _ ex  _ pushed me into Trunks and ran away.” She sneered at the memory. “Not that I would need him to protect me but who does that?”

“Not me!” Goten was quick to assure her. “I would like to take you out on a proper date when we can. I think the chemistry is there. Trunks’ presence might be a deal breaker though.” 

She finally gave a full-blown smile, lighting up her face but then it turned sinister with her lips curling and her brows down turning. Goten didn’t know whether to be scared or turned on.

“I think you’ve passed Trunks’ tests, my dad is the one that you’d have to look out for.”


End file.
